I had my first real hands-on SCAD experience today, consisting of a departmental meeting for grad graphic design students. In all, there are about 44 incoming MA and MFA candidates in my department, so at least I’m not alone. Although SCAD is organizationally and logitistically not BJU, some of the relaxation that comes with the shirking of formality and time pressure is welcomed.

One thing I’m learning very quickly is the prevalence of the “SCAD Bureaucracy”. It’s odd, but it seems that the faculty and students live and learn on one level, and there is always a controlling body up above somewhere telling you what to do (often asking you to go through unnecessary red tape). What I did not expect is the faculty telling me to ignore and avoid this said bureaucracy as much as possible. Although some of the resulting disorganization is annoying, sometimes the more relaxed atmosphere lets you be that much more creative.

The labs are well stocked and really quite nice, and it’s also a great perk that the labs are open until 2am every day. The simple pleasures of life. Oh, and they have a new 11×17 printer. Also a nice touch. Parking, however, is going to be another issue altogether. You thought bob jones had it bad, well, think again. SCAD has upwards of 5500 students this year, and a grand total of 2000 parking spaces across its entire sprawling campus. So, finding any parking anywhere, much less close to your classroom building is basically a pipe dream. I don’t mind getting there a little bit early, but I was advised today that I would have to get a space by 7:45am for a 9:00 class to be guaranteed a spot. Other than that, you have your choice of metered parking galore in every direction around the historic district. Since classes run 2 1/2 hours, the 25 cent/20 minute premium could add up in a few weeks. I guess we’ll have to play it by ear.

Other than school starting up, life is just drifting along right now. I have an interview at a temp agency tomorrow, and hopefully I’ll be able to get work through them. Crystal is still looking at a couple of opportunities, and should know by the end of the week. I’m still adjusting to having her around, and other little things like cooking dinner every night. I hope to get back up to Greenville for a weekend at the beginning of October. I look forward to seeing all of you guys again. to the wonderful employees of PCJ (Gwen now included), no coffee shop comes close to our coffee or, more importantly, breves. I’ll also have to get my bubble tea fix at o-cha again. I’ll have to thank my good friend Kayla for that addiction.

I’ll be posting more specific details about my classes as I get them from my professors. classes start wednesday. cheers.

sorry for the long delay in posts, but this past couple of weeks has been full of general busyness and life altering decisions and stuff. I moved to savannah, ga on saturday (the 3rd), and am still adjusting to life away from greenville. I ended up filling a 6×12 uhaul trailer with all of my belongings (oh, and my fiancée’s stuff too) last friday, then moved it all down on saturday with the help of my brother-in-law and sister.My sister jenni helped crystal and I assess and organize the madness in our new apartments.

the view from our apartments is great. The back of our apartment complex looks right out on the marshes in southside savannah.

After a weekend of crazy unpacking, crystal and I took jen back up to greenville on monday, stopping on the way to look at a potential wedding site in lancaster, sc. this is probably going to be the place, so you may want to pencil in oct. 7,2006 on your calendar.

this is the cool historic wedding site in lancaster, and the awesome blue front porch

we’ve spent the last few days trying to establish some kind of normalcy in our apartments, and figure out other necessities, like jobs and stuff. crystal has a few leads, and I’m still looking for something. following is the obligatory posting of apartment pictures…

living room with cool vintage furniture

awesome kitchen with bar (no galley kitchen for me)

detail of kitchen appliances

thanks to mom and jen for the stocked pantry

and once again, the beautiful view from my front door

I’ll be trying to post more often once the internet is up in my apartment. for the time being, I’m spending most of my downtime in a so-so coffee shop in n. savannah with free wireless. look in the next few days for info about orientation and class schedules at SCAD

well, graduation is over, all of the parties done and cards opened, and this afternoon my girlfriend flew off to san francisco to go back to her real family. now, i am going to crash, sleep, and hopefully piece together the rest of my life that has been neglected for the past year. on the up side, i get to visit crystal in san francisco in a matter of two weeks. other fun things to look forward to: working full time at port city java, taking the gre, and finding an apartment and job in savannah. anyway, i still have my days free (generally), so talk to me sometime. i wish you all well.

I am done with my undergraduate degree. It feels really weird to say that, but I guess after 16+ years in school, it’s about time. I finished my last exam yesterday, and am now in that quick decline to graduation. It’s been a really quick semester, but busy with projects, work, grad school plans, and all of the other interesting things life brings our way. It feels super strange to be basically done with school at bob jones forever. I didn’t think that I would have this many issues detaching myself from the school when the time came. Even the little things, like hanging out in the art building working on prints, drinking bad coffee in the snack shop, or catching a meal in the dining common with crystal seem like little gems that I’m really going to miss. Also, I can’t forget all of the wonderful friends I’ve made at bj, art and otherwise.

I’ll be up on stage for the world to see tomorrow morning, accepting my award for winning the commencement contest in graphic design. Fortunately for my nervous self, I’ll only be on stage for a few minutes. I’ll post a picture of my entry on this post sometime.

Probably the question I’ve heard (and asked) over the past few weeks is something like: ’so what are you doing with your life?’ Well, in reply, I was officially accepted to SCAD(thats savannah college of art and design) about a month ago for a master of fine arts in graphic design. I’ll be starting there in the fall, thus beginning a whole new phase of academic and personal life. The thought of getting out on my own still holds much more fearfulness and trepidation than exhilaration at this point. Hopefully that will change as the date gets closer. I’m looking at moving down to savannah sometime in august, so something to look forward to. I’ll be working pretty much full time at port city java this summer, so come by and see me sometime.

Finally, the second-most-often question asked: ’so, are you, like, dating that girl?’ And my reply as of saturday can finally be yes. Yes, for all the naysayers and skeptics out there, we are finally dating. I’ll be spending some actual unchaperoned, off-campus time with her post-graduation (I know, it sounds evil, doesn’t it). I’ll also be visiting her family at the end of may in san francisco, so we won’t have too much time apart. Also, she just “happened” to apply and be accepted to SCAD as well, so she’ll be joining me in the fall down in savannah, entering the master of fine arts program in art history.

In conclusion of this rediculously long catch-up, haven’t blogged in over two months post, I wish you all well, keep in contact. Keep in mind that if you are near savannah, or anywhere near the southeast for that matter, you must come and see us.

“coffee is a palpable, liquid way of understanding globalization”